Small pensions

If your Plan pension savings are less than £10,000 in value you may be able to take them as a ‘small pot’ lump sum. This means that you can take your entire Plan pension savings as cash. Up to 25% of the lump sum would currently be tax-free, with tax paid on the remainder. Taking a cash lump sum in this way would not trigger the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (see Tax and Allowances section for details); you would need to let the Plan administrators know that you wish to take a ‘small pot’ lump sum.

If your total savings in all your pension arrangements are worth less than £30,000 (not including State pension), you may also be able to take all your pension savings as a one-off lump sum. Please see your retirement statement or contact the Plan’s administrators if you believe this could be the case for you.

Transfer values under £30,000

If you have a transfer value of under £30,000 you do not have to provide the Plan with evidence that you've taken financial advice in order to transfer, but your receiving scheme may still require you to have taken advice to accept it.

We recommend that you speak to a financial adviser if you are considering transferring as there is a lot to think about. In most circumstances, financial advisers would typically recommend that taking your pension through the Plan is the right retirement choice.